Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton has said the Government was not "kicking the can down the road" with funding for special needs assistants, adding that she wanted to "get it right".
The trade union, Fórsa, has said the announcement that there will be no reductions of SNAs for the next school year and an additional €19 million in funding is a "sticking plaster to be in place for 12 months while the Government tries to get its act together".
The €19m is to be provided to fund SNAs following a meeting of Government party leaders and several ministers last night.
A Department of Education spokesperson said the €19m was additional funding being provided to the department over and above its current budgetary allocation.
Minister Naughton and Minister of State for Special Education Michael Moynihan confirmed the decision last night.
Minister Naughton said the Government is listening to the concerns of parents on SNA allocations and wants to avoid a cliff edge approach.
Speaking on her way into this morning's Cabinet meeting, she said she was "not happy with the sequencing of events".
She said the redeployment scheme was near finalisation, but needed to be explained to SNAs, because "this is actually positive for them".
Watch: Minister denies Govt 'kicking can down the line' on SNA issue
The announcement follows an outcry last week over plans to cut the number of SNAs in 194 schools following reviews of their allocations.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Fórsa's head of education Andy Pike said the additional funding and the cancellation of cuts is welcome, but the planned cuts "should never have happened".
"The can has been kicked down the road for 12 months," he said.
Mr Pike said he expects that protests planned for tomorrow in cities and towns throughout the country, including at Leinster House, will still go ahead.
"Policy on this area hasn't been looked at in a while. The 12 months ahead provided an opportunity to sit down and hammer out the future for special ed policy in mainstream classes," he said.
The planned cuts to SNA provision in the schools was also the subject of a Sinn Féin Dáil motion to be debated this evening.
In addition to no school losing SNAs, schools in line to get additional SNAs will receive them.
An agreement on the SNA redeployment scheme, the SNA workforce plan and changes to a 2014 circular outlining the role of a SNA will be advanced before any further Government decision is taken.
The department spokesperson said the priority would be ensuring that the child-centred approach to the provision of special education would be retained and enhanced.
Conviction of parents underestimated, says principal
The Principal of Assumption Junior School in Walkinstown in Dublin said they were devasted when they were told their SNA allocation would be cut to five from nine.
Speaking in RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Jean Leonard said that for children with SNAs, they are "honestly not able to access any kind of meaningful education without that support".
She said that following the review process carried out by the National Council for Special Education the school believed that only children who had very high levels of medical needs would keep their SNA support.
"I've been a principal for 17 years and I would honestly struggle with finding an organisation that I've ever dealt with that I would feel is less child-centred than the NCSE", she said, adding that she would have "huge concerns around who is going to be involved in drafting of the new circular regarding SNA access".
Ms Leonard said she thinks that the NCSE and the Government thought they could "get away with it".
"And I think they underestimated the strength of conviction of the parents of children with additional needs.
"These parents who we meet every year, they have had to fight for absolutely everything for their child from the minute they were born.
"And they're not afraid to continue fighting, and they won't be afraid to continue fighting," she added.
Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne said he accepts the way proposed SNA cuts was communicated had caused upset.
Speaking on the same programme, he added that there will have to be an agreed procedure with everybody involved and that he expected Minister Moynihan would bring along parents and SNAs in the process to make sure that this is all worked out together.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Education and Youth Darren O'Rourke said the ministers involved should have listened to parents, SNAs and teachers who have been telling them for years about the essential work of SNAs.
He said that cuts announced caused unnecessary hurt, upset, alarm and devastation.
He described the u-turn as "essential", but said the Government needs to fundamentally change the approach it has been taking.
'Families have spent weeks worrying about September'
Niamh McDonald, a parent and organiser of the Stop SNA Cuts national campaign said: "Without SNA support, many children simply cannot attend school safely or consistently.
"Families have spent weeks worrying about September. We are relieved there will be no immediate cuts, but nothing has changed in terms of the waiting lists, the lack of therapies, or the pressure our children face every day in school.
"The Government's announcement is like placing a sticking plaster on a gaping wound. We need to use this moment, while public attention is focused on the crisis in our schools, to push for much deeper change."
Louise Lennox whose 12-year-old son Alex avails of SNA support at school in Greystones, Co Wicklow said that having an SNA has been "life changing" for her son.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with David McCullagh, she said that she was hugely worried for her son as well as every parent around Ireland recently, as it has a knock-on domino effect on the school community if SNAs are not there as SNAs are vital to providing children with support, she said.
"Trust and clarity has been broken," she said adding that parents feel they are fighting for services all the time and it is exhausting.
